Trends in Digital Transformation: Technical

Early trends in digital transformation included a mobile first for new revenue opportunities and getting to the cloud for cost reasons. While these trends still continue, the activity has gained momentum with new streams of effort. I have identified seven additional areas of digital action that are gaining momentum in the digital transformation arena we all find ourselves in at the moment.

1. Excellence in the  User Experience (UX):

Organizations now understand the importance of the user experience with the advent of  ever improving experiences with the likes of Amazon and Uber. It now starts with wrapping the of the customer journey with an enticing and effective experience.

2. Surround Legacy Portfolios for Better Leverage:

Organizations usually leveraging existing systems assets before they replace them. This puts a premium on wrapping and composition of the old with the new.

3. Analytic Lead Efforts:

Organizations want to discover what is actually happening, so data visualization of new sources of data like signals / events / patterns and process actions is accelerating. Once a base line is set, they make improvements and watch the numbers. Add cognitive assists to deal with the increasing speed of digital and now management by measurement works better in digital.

4. Process and Application Improvement:

Digital isn't free, so finding funding sources is a challenge. This puts a premium on optimizing processes and applications to wring out more money for future improvements and better profits. Process intelligence through mining is solid contributor here.

5. The Exploration of  the IoT / Software Connection:

IoT works well for contained situations like braking on car. Now IoT will broaden it's impact, the combination with software and firmware to produce innovative solutions that can combine machines, software and humans in new ways. More control can be put on the edge and only involve human intervention as needed.

6. Hyper Convergence:

Convergence is already happening in the cloud with reduction of cloud specialists and the growth of cloud biospheres. This convergence will continue for infrastructure plays such as big data and integration, but it will really accelerate to include business differentiating technologies such as process / work management, analytic / cognitive intelligence, integration, the internet of things and business applications. The digital business platform, which has high levels of convergence, is beginning to emerge and will gain momentum.

7. Real Digital Identity:

Digital identity is not focused on the customer, from the customers perspective, and is deeply embedded in many places. Where it exists, it is mostly aimed at supporting a specific technology or group of related technologies. This is inside out and must change and converge. This is starting with true digital identity vendors emerging now.

Net; Net:

The speed and complexity of digital transformations is increasing as organizations are pushing digital to the edge as they see the positive results. The trends are strong and expanding as we move closer to 2020.

Additional Reading:  

Digital Maturity
Digital Business Platforms